spring-colored macarons

A friend and favorite coworker of mine has recently moved on to other endeavors, and as I did the last time this happened, I took requests for her farewell treat. She had two: something with saffron, and blue, speckled, bird’s-egg macarons.

The bird’s-egg treatment was inspired by a newspaper article featuring coconut-laden macarons, and while I didn’t follow the recipe or present them on a cutesy faux-nest of spanish moss, I think I nailed the dark brown speckles. I used my standard recipe and flavored these with the seeds scraped from a single vanilla bean. The saffron macarons got a heaping 1/8th of a teaspoon of saffron ground up with their dry ingredients, and the green tea batch was made with a tablespoon of matcha. They were a perfect send-off for a lovely lady.

I’ve been spending my time reading in the backyard, enjoying the impossibly short flowering period of my favoriteblossom, and soaking up every last second of spring, but I’ll be back with more soon.